Hate Web Sites Traced to Ex-Hollister Councilman / DSL line used to attack lesbians who own local paper

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 18, 2001

A former Hollister city councilman's home computer was the source of anonymous Web sites that attacked the lesbian couple who run the town's weekly newspaper, their top columnist and other slow-growth proponents, according to telephone company records.

Information provided by SBC Communications connected eight-year Councilman Joe Felice's home DSL line to a series of Web pages. They linked Pinnacle Publisher Tracie Cone's name to hard-core lesbian pornography sites, called Cone and Pinnacle Editor Anna Marie dos Remedios "the filth from up north" and falsely accused columnist Bob Valenzuela of child molestation.

The Web pages appeared during October and November, while Felice was a city councilman in Hollister, a burgeoning rural town on Silicon Valley's southernmost edge. As the tide turned against development, pro-growth Felice chose not to run for office again and left the council in December.

The Pinnacle, bought a year ago by former San Jose Mercury News journalists Cone and dos Remedios, has taken a strong slow-growth stance. Such views and people espousing them were mocked on the anonymous Web sites.

Cone and dos Remedios filed a $6 million defamation lawsuit Nov. 6 in U.S. District Court in San Jose against unnamed "John Does" to try to identify the sites' author and to win a public apology.

The lawsuit led to a subpoena against Yahoo, where the first site appeared. Yahoo provided a user number assigned to the site, which was traced to a Pacific Bell DSL line in the SBC subsidiary's Monterey area, which includes Hollister.

Information provided late last week in response to a second subpoena, against SBC, linked the Yahoo Web site number to a DSL line Felice has subscribed to since May.

On Thursday, Pinnacle lawyers planned to file an amended lawsuit naming Felice as a defendant.

Felice, whose family goes back five generations in Hollister and founded its biggest business, a cannery, did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

The information provided by SBC did not say who actually created the sites. Anyone with access to a computer on Felice's home DSL line could have done so.

"We allege that he did it. We have some evidence that he is the person we want," said Pinnacle attorney John Picone, who lives in Hollister and practices at Fish & Richardson in Menlo Park.

Cone and dos Remedios, frightened by the viciousness and anonymity of the sites targeting them, found no relief in the latest developments.

"The idea that this mean, hateful attack could have come from an elected official, someone who is supposed to represent the whole community, could have disturbed me even more," Cone said. "We're scared."

Added dos Remedios, "I feel like I'm not safe. I go out to feed my horses and I'm looking all around. I feel like I'm watching my back all the time. You get lulled into a sense of community here, and I've lost all that now."

Both Hollister's police chief and the San Benito County sheriff have said the Web sites did not cross the line into criminal behavior.

The lawsuit raises issues of Internet privacy and free speech. Many Internet service providers deliver subscriber information only in response to a subpoena.

The Pinnacle lawsuit seeks legal clarity around the use of unwanted links between Web sites.

The lawsuit argues that the link between Cone's name and a lesbian porn site implies an "active association" with a commercial business, meaning the link makes it seem as though Cone endorses what the site sells, or is associated with it in some way, according to Pinnacle attorney David Barkan, of the same Menlo Park firm.

That a Web link is visual, and offers instant access to many people, gives its message extra power, he added.

Cone and dos Remedios say the fact that hundreds of people in their town saw the sites, and read subsequent news stories, has left them feeling exposed and puts their newspaper business at risk.

They're also learning firsthand about the vulnerability, anxiety and panic that come, they say, with being under attack.

"I also feel like this happens in other places and maybe people don't have the strength to fight back, or maybe the resources," Cone said. "Our hope and dream would be that somewhere down the line someone addresses the issue of the Internet and the great latitude it gives people to say what they want."

Added dos Remedios, "We didn't set out to be activists in any sort of fashion, in Internet aspects or in the gay rights department. Now we feel like we are in a situation where people shouldn't be able to do this and we need to fight this fight . . . I just didn't realize how hard it would be."